For even the armchair political commentator, the results of this election were not surprising. The voters made two things clear from the outset of the election: they wanted a change from the establishment and they did not like Hillary Clinton. The Democratic leadership responded by engineering the selection of perhaps the greatest establishment figure in politics and someone with a record level of unpopularity with voters. On election day, voters followed through on every poll: they voted against Clinton and the establishment. Only the mainstream media and democratic insiders seemed bowled over by the news — shocked that the voters would reject their sage advice and lopsided coverage. Indeed, as someone who contributed to the coverage that night, I was shocked how shocked everyone was. While the odds favored Clinton, her low popularity with independent voters and high polling figures on dishonesty made the election uncertain at best. As we began to discuss years ago, the “remaking” of Clinton seemed disconnected from voters who continued to view her and the Clinton family as the personification of the establishment. It showed how entirely out of touch the core Democratic leadership (and media) has become. Now, that thick cloak of denial appears firmly in place as Democrats blame FBI Director Comey for the loss despite the fact that Hillary was declining in the polls before his late disclosure to Congress and the fact that Hillary set records on dishonesty in poll after poll. Two stories this week have brought this home. One was the rallying behind Donna Brazile by DNC staff last week with the notable exception of one man who confronted both Brazile and his colleagues. The second is the report that Democratic leaders immediately turned form Hillary Clinton’s historic defeat to start grooming Chelsea Clinton for political office. The problem it seems was that the public was not given enough Clintons. Faced with a populist uprising, the Democratic leadership seems to be offering more of the same like an actor who cannot move beyond one script and one role.

We have previously discussed the unethical actions of interim DNC chief Brazile and the conspicuous failures of the media to investigate her claims of altered emails. While CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker called Brazile’s actions “disgusting” and others have denounced her actions, the DNC has stuck with Brazile and she recently appeared before staff to given them a pep talk.

The event however did not turn out quite as planned when one staffer had had enough. According to The Huffington Post, a staffer named Zach asked “Why should we trust you as chair to lead us through this? You backed a flawed candidate, and your friend [former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz] plotted through this to support your own gain and yourself.” He continued by saying “You are part of the problem. You and your friends will die of old age and I’m going to die from climate change. You and your friends let this happen, which is going to cut 40 years off my life expectancy.”

He then left — a personification for millions of independents and Democrats who abandoned the party to elect Donald Trump.

Nevertheless, the rest of the DNC rallied behind Brazile and gave breathless accounts of her inspiring leadership. A DNC staffer told HuffPost that there was “overwhelming” support for Brazile and that her words “had some staffers in tears.” That would be welcomed news for Republican strategists. It is also worth noting that, after emails showed that Debbie Wasserman-Shultz (Brazile’s predecessor) had worked to rig the primary and dealt dishonestly with Sanders, she was overwhelmingly reelected and embraced by the DNC leadership.

The second story is even more curious. Many viewed the election as the ultimate rejection of the Clinton dynasty that has controlled the Democratic party for over a decade. The Clintons put their family and its “brand” front and center in this election . . . and voters rejected it. However, within hours of the defeat, Democratic leaders were reportedly turning to Chelsea Clinton as the new flag bearer. Clinton, 36, is reportedly being groomed by the same leadership to replace Rep. Nita Lowey, 79, in representing New York’s 17th District. Of course, Chelsea does not live there but the district covers part of Westchester County, including Bill and Hillary Clinton’s hometown of Chappaqua.

The question is whether the Democrats are going to spin the result of this election and deny reality when, in two years, they will be facing the inverse of this election: more Democratic seats will be up for grabs and Trump could receive a super majority in Congress, including a veto-proof margin.

I am an independent and do not have a horse in this race. However, in speaking with my Democratic students, they express complete separation from the Democratic leadership and the establishment politics that it has come to represent. I come from a long-standing Democratic and liberal family in Chicago. When I was raised in that environment, the Democratic party was the populist party — the voice of the outsider and emerging constituencies. Now it is viewed as the party of insiders and establishment power brokers. There may be enough unhappy members (particularly Sanders people) to change the party, but these stories do not help with that image.

It seems to me that, if the Democrats want to resurrect their party, it will require entirely new leadership and a new vision to fit an increasing independent populace.

It’s up to them. The road is clear. They sounds like drug addicts that can’t shake it off. Either they will seize the opportunity to make something new and better, or they’ll be swept under the rug of history.

I’m just wondering about something and I hope that someone may answer this long question. Why is it that the Democratic Party says that Republicans are, upper middle class, rich, big business, entitled, conservatives, greedy and the Democrats are for the rights of everyone and of the little people who are the working class, uneducated, but once they lost the election that it is the fault of the working class, uneducated people? Isn’t the Democratic party being hypocritical?

Trump won the votes of the working class in the Rust Belt states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. And I think Trump won 32 states to Hillary’s 20? He won Florida and North Carolina too.

This election showed that the working class, the little people, the uneducated, the laborers all voted for Trump in greater numbers. You know, those “deplorables” that Hillary has such contempt for.

The Democrats ran Hillary Clinton, the most elite, corrupt, insider candidate under active FBI criminal investigation. She was never able to connect with the working class, in fact she ignored them. She never even set foot in Wisconsin or Michigan. Instead she hob-knobbed with big wealthy donors out in California and in NYC. But Trump connected with those voters. He spent time there doing rallies. He earned their votes. Hillary took them for granted.

All the big banks, big corporations, big Hollywood, big Silicon Valley, greedy, big business elites? They funded Hillary’s campaign. She is bought and paid for and owed everything to everybody. Trump owes everything to the American people – not donors or special intestests.

This is the election that turned it all around. The working class voters went for Trump this time and crossed party lines to vote for Trump — along with large numbers of women, blacks, hispanics and blue collar workers. This is how and why Trump won.

Iamisabel, the Democrats tried to play on the myth that they are the party of the people, but they have been steadily (stealthily?) changing since Bill Clinton. Thomas Frank explains it best in my opinion – his book “Listen Liberal” is great or you can catch one of his interviews on YouTube.

Democrats and Republicans alike have been feeding off the American people like maggots – same coin different sides for a long time. That’s why smart voters looked to Bernie Sanders and / or Donald Trump to shake up the corrupt system.

Braindead partisans don’t think – they just vote R or D blindly rather than choosing candidates based on their real merits.

I so hope you are mistaken. Here’s my theory…..Trump has a massive ego and he wants to be a great president, not just so so. And he certainly does not want to be judged as a disaster or a failure. So this works in favor of all of us – Trump is motivated to succeed.

So, he kept his first promise: “I will fight for you and I will win for you.” He did it – against all odds, he did it, he won. He beat Hillary at her own game when she had the home field advantage in every way. He doesn’t owe anybody anything – except the American people. Hillary was bought and paid for and owed everybody everything.

Like him or hate him, he built a successful business, he proved he has good judgment, he proved he can win. He’s a deal maker. He’s not a partisan. He used to be a Democrat. He ran as a Republican. But he’s really not one. He’s more of a centrist. Kind of like a third party candidate who ran as a Republican. He’s socially liberal. There’s something for everyone here. He is gonna do good things for America. I believe this.

PS And I also believe that I am spending too much time on this blog. Perhaps the fact that I don’t own a television has something to do with it. Give Trump a chance. Peace….over and out.

Nobody’s perfect and Trump certainly is not. You can please some of the people some of the time, but will never please all of the people all of the time. Politics is a nasty game and not many truly decent unflawed people are willing to play it – probably b/c there are no unflawed people on this planet. So let’s hope for the best – for most of the people- this time.

God bless America. Let’s rise above this partisan battleground. If love trumps hate, prove it with more love, not more hate! Think of Mother Teresa. She used to say that Peace begins with a smile. Try it. It works!

Whatever it is that is wrong with America, hate is the weapon Trump and his dupes used to get elected. Expect a little backlash from the more intelligent and enlightened. That’s is correct, the more intelligent and enlightened who could see past the frustration and hoped for a steady hand. Here’s praying that the hatred exhibited by the Trump voters was only a device he used to get elected and that he will stop feeding the mindless and pull back. This is a dark time for America. The Nazis believed they were in the right also. They started with hate and frustration. Well redemption time comes in two years when the Senate is up for grabs. If Turley has the minerals to let me stay on this blog you will be hearing continuously, facts, figures, and the truth.

President-elect Donald Trump is “in a very unusual situation” when it comes to his considerable assets, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Sunday, because putting control of his businesses into a true blind trust “would basically put his children out of work.”

*****

Imagine…those poor Trump kids would be left destitute if they didn’t run daddy’s empire!

Pence’s views—and, most important, his record as a member of Congress and now governor—on a whole host of issues from reproductive rights to LGBT rights are more extreme than any vice-presidential nominee in modern history.

Despite his hatred for “big government,” Pence has repeatedly used government as a tool to discriminate against the LGBT community. He’s been a pioneer in crafting innovative strategies and nuanced language to subject LGBT Americans to discrimination while shielding himself from ridicule.

Like many on the right, Pence favors withholding rights from LGBT Americans, from adoption rights to allowing same-sex couples to marry. But he takes his bigotry a step further by favoring laws and policies that give legal protection to people to discriminate against members of the LGBT community…

The American Psychological Association, The American Medical Association, and 11 other major medical organizations reject conversion therapy because they don’t believe that there is a disorder to “fix,” they don’t believe one can actually change orientation or gender identity and that attempting doing so is dangerous and harmful, particularly to LGBT youth.

The techniques therapists have used to try to change sexual orientation and gender identity are horrifying. They include inducing nausea, vomiting, or paralysis while showing the patient homoerotic images; providing electric shocks; using shame to create aversion to same-sex attractions. Other techniques include trying to make patients’ behavior more stereotypically feminine or masculine, teaching heterosexual dating skills, using hypnosis to try to redirect desires and arousal.

It’s no wonder that LGBT youth who are forced to face conversion therapy are, according to the American Psychological Association, 8.9 times as likely to be suicidal, 5.9 times as likely to be depressive, and three times as likely to use illegal drugs.

In 2000, when Pence ran for Congress successfully in Indiana, he proposed that Ryan White Act Money intended for organizations providing HIV/AIDS care be redirected from organizations that support LGBT rights to “those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.”
His intention was clear. Even though he knew LGBT organizations were providing critical lifesaving HIV/AIDS services, he said they were promoting the homosexual lifestyle and that the federal government’s money would be better spent elsewhere.

If Pence’s position sounds fringe, remember that the GOP has now adopted conversion therapy into its national platform. This is shocking. As our nation becomes more progressive on LGBT rights, a major political party took a giant leap back.

But that is how Bill de Blasio’s wife became a heterosexual person instead of a Lesbian. She accidentally stuck her finger in a light socket and KERBLAMMM! 2 nanoseconds later, she was straight! A has-bian!

edm – what is really interesting is the all of those organizations that you mentioned were four square against homosexuality and for conversion therapy 20 years ago. In fact, the APA saw it as a mental disorder to be treated with shock treatments in the 1950s and 60s

Issac,
“Expect a little backlash from the more intelligent and enlightened. That’s is correct, the more intelligent and enlightened”

With that kind of arrogant and presumptuous commentary you just want to vent your spleen. You are trying to incite deeper divisions rather than than bring people to your point of view. Love trumps hate? Really? I hear no love in your commentary.

I am not convinced you actually care about your arguments, or that you actually want others to share your concerns. This is part of what is tearing at the fabric of our country. What you are doing is not part of the solution.

I, too, am concerned about Trump. You know I did not vote for him. Making people angry and defensive is only going to entrench the issues and make them fester. Take the log out of your own eye.

Hey, it’s Issac’s best bud-inbred-appalachian-wayyyyyy-to-wide-grin-guy here. Weeeeeeeez! Those boys are just still lashin’ out after losing in a good wompin’. That’s too bad he wants to keep whining. We had some smart people talk about building a better team yesterday. I may not have the ability to know much (being cozy in a basket of deplorables), as Issac reminds us all sooooo many times, but I do know if you have a better team you can score more.

Time to throw the clintons under the bus–if there is any room left from all the other people they’ve already thrown under the bus. Round up some good guys’ n gals and have at it. They’re already there, just use ’em. People are waiting for them.

I just think we really need to give Trump a chance. Peaceful Protest and Assembly, yes, absolutely. But destructive, hate filled, window-smashing, spitting on people, spray-painting hate speech on public buildings, intimidating Trump supporters – none of this is defined as “protest” – it is called rioting. And this is what is wrong with America right now. You say hate is the weapon Trump and his dupes used to get elected? Well fighting hate with more hate and intolerance and rioting does not equal love. And it is not a solution to any problems you see. It is jut more hate – only now with violence and destruction heaped on top. This is the reality on our streets right now – after all the empty rhetoric from Hillary about the importance of accepting the results of this election and not doing this! But both Hillary and Obama have remained silent. I find that absolutely wrong.

and are you saying that the half of the country that agrees with you is intelligent and enlightened, but the other half are not? so about 150 million or so ignorable deplorables can be put in a basket of stupid?

What I would like to see is Zach come back while Donna Brazile and EVERY single Democratic leader be removed and replaced. I don’t blame the American people for the loss of the White House….I don’t blame HRC…I blame DWS, Donna Brazile and all the rest of the Democratic leaders who did everything in their power to keep Bernie Sanders from being nominated. Our “so called” leaders did NOTHING for people like me. WE WANTED CHANGE AND BERNIE SANDERS OFFERED THAT PROGRESSIVE CHANGE. Those we now want removed on the other hand DID NOTHING for us. No, I didn’t vote against HRC, but I no longer want the same old SH*T we have been given. I will do everything in my power to have removed all of those leaders I hold responsible for this election debacle.

isaac – I wanted to share my favorite German word with you. It’s “schadenfreude”. Are you familiar with it?

here ya go:

Schadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortune of others. Borrowed from German into English and several other languages, it is a feeling of joy that comes from seeing or hearing about another person’s troubles or failures. It is similar in meaning to the English term “gloating”, an expression of pleasure or self-satisfaction at one’s own success or another’s failure.

Oh but don’t you remember when Chelsea had her first baby and Wolf Blitzer was on CNN with his pals all fawning and he actually said how exciting it was for the country because the Clintons are the closest thing we have to royalty here? I kid you not. And to this day – despite the epic failures within the DNC and Hillary’s campaign – they are STILL fawning all over Hillary. It’s like a weird cult following.

The press, including PBS and NPR is back to churning out the usual drivel. This is the fault of the voters. Even though these same voters put Obama in office, not once, but TWO times, they have suddenly become racists. Must be mass hypnosis by the Russians. They must have swung a giant clock in the sky and no one noticed till …they…wer..e…. ZZZZ.

Yes, indeed Chelsea Clinton is the perfect and ideal liberal Democrat. She has never worked on honest day’s living in her life, knows nothing about the economy, finance, or business, and is committed to a strict leftist agenda. She’s a lot like Bernie Sanders in that respect. Even Hillary Clinton had some actual work experience: defending a rapist and successfully getting him off the hook. So Chelsea’s a shoe-in wherever a plethora of libtards reside. The name “Clinton” is magic for libtards everywhere.